American Literature of the Sea and Great Lakes

BROOKS, KENNETH F., JR. (1921- ). Kenneth F. Brooks Jr., a decorated World War II pilot living near Washington, D.C., spent his childhood summers on his uncle’s sailboat in the Chesapeake Bay and continues to sail. In Run to the Lee (1965) Brooks recounts a voyage made by his great-uncle John Talbott in 1904 on a ninety-foot schooner, the Albatross, from Baltimore to Solomons Island, fifty miles south. When the crew fell ill from spoiled oysters, Talbott battled a storm alone at the helm, reaching safe harbor. Chesapeake Sleighride (1970) is a fictionalized, illustrated version of the same story written for juvenile* readers. Here the author narrates from the viewpoint of one of the crew, a fictional fourteen-year-old boy who did not eat the spoiled oysters and who assists the captain in sailing through the storm.